A teenage trespasser has been banned from going within five miles of a derelict hospital after he punched the elderly keyholder in the face, loosening several teeth and knocking him temporarily unconscious.

The blow, by Timothy James Cox from Anglesey could have killed 77-year-old Gwilym Pierce, a judge said at Mold Crown Court.

Cox, 19, of Clegir Cottage, Gwalchmai, admitted assault, occasioning actual bodily harm, following the incident in the grounds of the North Wales Hospital, Denbigh, in June last year.

He was given a nine-month youth custody sentence, suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 225 hours unpaid work and ordered to remain indoors on a tagged curfew between 8pm and 6am for the next two months.

Cox was ordered to pay £750 compensation to Mr Pierce and a five-year restraining order was made under which he must not to post anything on social media about Mr Pierce, or encourage anyone else to do so.

Filmed on mobile phone

Prosecutor Emmalyne Downing said Mr Pierce had seen three young people in the grounds of the hospital one afternoon last June and asked them to leave.

They became verbally abusive and Cox was waving his arms about and repeatedly said it was only civil trespass.

The others joined in and one of them was recording it all on his mobile phone.

Police arrived, checked the site and left.

Cox and the two others then returned, Mr Pierce told them to leave and they ended up shouting at him.

He dialled 999 and what happened next was something of a blur for Mr Pierce.

The next thing he recalled was getting up off the ground, the prosecutor explained.

But a witness, his friend’s wife, had seen him being punched by Cox and then fall to the floor.

Police arrived, Mr Pierce was in a distressed state and the mobile phone containing the footage was seized by police.

On it, Cox could be heard arguing that it was a civil matter and that they had not broken any criminal law.

Mr Pierce ended up with cuts to the inside of his lips and several teeth were loosened.

'Serious matter'

He had needed extended dental work and six teeth had to be extracted, three being directly attributable to the assault. He now had to wear a full denture.

Judge Rowlands warned Cox if he breached the restraining order then he could be locked up for up to five years.

“This is a serious matter. I am not sure that you understand that even today,” the judge told him.

The judge said Mr Pierce used to be a foreman at the hospital and said since its closure around 20 years ago he acted as the keyholder and grazed stock in the grounds.

“He no doubt feels a lot of affinity towards that site as do many of the people of Denbigh,” Judge Rowlands said.

“Over the years it has been a draw to people who have no right whatsoever to be there.”

Mr Pierce regularly came across trespassers and he had to ask them to leave.

He said Cox and the others had been acting in a totally immature and irresponsible way.

“You had no right to be there. You were not going to be told what to do by him, you thought you were clever. You are not clever from where I am sitting, not in the least. You may think you are, but you are not.”

In a victim impact statement, Mr Pierce said the attack had affected his life and had made him more nervous about visiting the hospital site.

He was now concerned and apprehensive when he visited and he no longer walked his dog at night.

He had trouble with everyday things such as eating and chewing and he had not been out for a meal with his wife since because he could not chew properly.